tonight, a special edition of "world news" from the biggest battleground of them all, ohio. we take you inside the end game, the obama campaign, their secret to get out the vote here in ohio. the romney campaign, how they're lasering in on the few undecideds left. we're with them for the final pitch. plus, george stephanopoulos with the bottom line on the path to victory for both sides. univision's jorge ramos and the hidden power of the hispanic vote. and the new abc news poll tonight. who is ahead with two days left? the worst nightmare for millions of americans who were in hurricane sandy's path. tonight, another storm. and bitterly cold temperatures. meteorologist ginger zee with the storm track, as we ask, what about electricity? and now word of free gas. tragic fall. a day of heartbreak at an american zoo. a little boy falls into an animal pit. the desperate effort to save his life. and, who will win? the one question we haven't been asking. but does it hold the biggest

clue yet to election night? who do you think is going to win? and good evening tonight from cleveland, ohio. and we're here tonight because both campaigns are counting on ohio and its 18 electoral votes on election night. the president needs ohio to hold onto his midwestern firewall. romney needs ohio because without it, the math for him is very difficult. which is why we discovered a frenetic pace, as we were allowed inside both campaigns, working on the ground here today to get out the vote. governor romney in cleveland. tonight, his campaign says his ground game is well ahead of john mccain's four years ago. president obama rallying his supporters in cincinnati tonight. polls here in ohio showing a slim lead for the president. and tonight, the newest abc news/"washington post" poll and it shows why getting out the vote across this country, and right here in ohio, will make all the difference tuesday.

president obama ahead by just one point tonight. and look at the map. heading into the weekend, governor romney making 14 stops, seven battleground states, the president, 14 stops, eight states. and nowhere have they been more than ohio. tonight, our countdown clock is on and so is our powerhouse political team. with two days to go, our whole team here tonight. we're going to begin tonight with our senior white house correspondent jake tapper in cincinnati. >> reporter: as the candidates crisscross battleground states, it's as if they're on different planets. both campaigns claim victory is within reach. their pitches combinations of soaring rhetoric and needy cries to not buy what the others are selling. >> he's hoping we'll settle. americans don't settle. we build, we aspire. we dream. we can do better. >> their bet is on your cynicism. but florida, my bet is on you and your hope. >> reporter: to appeal to undecided voters, sick of d.c.

dysfunction, both candidates are cloaking themselves in bipartisan robes. >> i'll endeavor to find those good men and women on both sides of the aisle who care more about the country than they do about politics. >> i want all parties to work together. and we're not democrats and republicans first, we're americans first. >> reporter: and as a sign of just how close the obama campaign thinks this could be, the president today appeared in new hampshire, which has only four electoral votes. he was joined by bill clinton, who mocked romney's pitch. >> don't pay too much attention to what our solutions are, just be disappointed in it. look at me, i look like a president. and i talk like one. and i'm telling you it's all going to be all right if you elect me. >> reporter: the president wistfully told his supporters the campaign is no longer about him or his team. >> we're no longer relevant now. we're props.

because what's happened is, now, the campaign falls on these 25-year-old kids who are out there knocking on doors, making phone calls. >> reporter: romney appeared in pennsylvania this evening. it's unclear if going to the state that hasn't gone republican in a presidential race for almost a quarter century was a bold sign of confidence that he's getting ahead of a romney wave, david, or a desperate attempt to find a path to the presidency that does not include this state that you and i are both in, ohio. david? >> jake tapper here in ohio with me tonight. jake and i have been crisscrossing each other, covering both of these campaigns. and with the race this close tonight, it will all come down to which campaign can get the vote out. in one cleveland suburb today, we discovered that dueling campaigns can actually watch one another from across the street. we're here at the obama-biden field office in one of the suburbs surrounding cleveland, and just to give you an idea of how crucial these votes are in the suburbs, how competitive both campaigns are for these votes, i wanted to show you how long it would take us to get

from the obama field office to the romney field office. we literally drove down the parking lot and, well, look across the street. there's romney-ryan. how are you? >> good to see you. >> reporter: few days left. and that's where we started, with the team trying to unseat the president. and they know they need ohio. inside, you can sense it. they know they have just few precious hours left. so, this is the buzz, two days out. >> may i please speak with michael? >> reporter: volunteers calling lists of voters who they believe lean republican. so, the people you are calling right now, you have a hint they could be leaning republican, you just need to get in touch with them. >> that's exactly right. >> reporter: president obama won this county four years ago. george w. bush won it in 2004 and they are determined to flip it back. tom gave up his sunday with his family to knock on doors. are you missing a game to do this? >> well, you know, i have a radio in the car, so -- >> reporter: you'll have the score. that score tuesday night more important to him. >> well, i think we're at a very critical point, a historic election.

>> reporter: we ride with him in a small team of volunteers to find the undecided voters. the romney campaign telling us they believe that's a pool of just 2% of ohio voters, perhaps even less. they find one. >> i haven't made up my mind yet. >> reporter: russ, a dad, an electrician. how many times have you been called or contacted? >> quite a few times. >> reporter: tonight, he says he's leaning obama, telling me help for the middle class is most important to him. but the romney team not giving up. this is a gentleman who says he's been contacted several times by both you guys and the obama team. >> look, i mean, we're not taking absolutely anything for granted. >> reporter: nor is the team inside that obama field office, back across the street. how are you doing? in one of the back rooms, you don't hear phones ringing. instead, you hear the printer. printing up stacks of maps. they call it cutting the turf. and this one turf alone, how many houses? >> this is 15 or 20. >> reporter: and every one of them, a voter who they believe if they meet them face to face, will vote for the president. every dot on this map is going

to be someone who gets a knock today. >> yep. and tomorrow and tuesday. >> reporter: they're going to love you in that neighborhood. david, a grandfather, says he's knocking on doors for his grandchildren's future. and he finds this woman, he asks her if he'll vote early but she says she wants to stand in line on election day. >> that's just -- >> you like that experience? >> yes. >> yeah. >> you saw that volunteer there, find another voter. you also heard him ask her to vote early. both campaigns urging supporters to vote before tuesday and the lines have been extraordinary across this country. more than 27 million americans have cast their votes in 34 states and the district of columbia already. the wait so long in florida, tonight, the fight to keep some of that early voting open longer. abc's cecilia vega is watching the lines in tampa tonight. >> reporter: chaos in miami. so many voters showed up today, overwhelmed poll workers briefly locked polling place doors. all weekend long, the lines to

vote early went on and on. for some, the wait was six hours. >> this is ridiculous. >> reporter: new changes to florida's voting law cut down early voting by one day. making saturday the last day to cast an early ballot. the republican governor refused an extension and, in the middle of the night, democrats filed an emergency lawsuit. a judge ordered one polling place near orlando to stay open sunday after it shut down early because of a bomb threat. and polling places in a handful of other counties where the lines were especially long opened sunday so voters could cast absentee ballots in person. and this is one of those polling places outside of st. petersburg where you can still cast an early ballot. president obama won narrowly here in florida four years ago. so far, democrats have outpaced republicans in turning those early ballots in. david, both sides now waging a fierce battle in these final few hours. >> a battle already, cecilia vega in florida, where she'll be on election night. cecilia, thank you. every four years, we watch

as the vote comes in and whoever wins the electoral map, the electoral college, wins the presidency. you need 270 electoral votes to win. and so tonight, "gma" anchor and "this week" host george stephanopoulos with the bottom line on the best path for both campaigns. george? >> reporter: in these final hours, david, scheduling is strategy, and for president obama, it's all about his midwest firewall -- iowa, wisconsin and that big prize, ohio. he's hit those states every day since friday. they are going to be his last three stops on monday. and this electoral map shows why. if president obama can win these three on top of the solid blue states democrats have taken in the last several elections, he'll have the 271 electoral votes he needs to win, even if governor romney sweeps all the rest of the battleground states. which is why you do see governor romney making a late play for pennsylvania. he's going to be there today, in the suburbs of philadelphia. pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes are an insurance policy against a loss in ohio. democrats are calling it a hail mary, but the race is tighter than expected there, so, the

gamble makes some sense. romney will need to win pennsylvania if the president's firewall holds. david? >> george stephanopoulos, who will be guiding us all through election night, thank you. and now to a key group both sides have tried to court, the hispanic vote. our latest poll shows the president leads among hispanics, 66% to 28% and keep in mind, john mccain got 31%, more than that, four years ago. how big a role will hispanic voters play? we turn to our partners at univision and jorge ramos tonight. jorge? >> reporter: david, the new rule in american politics is that no one can make it to the whitehouse without the hispanic vote. this tuesday about 12 million latinos will go to the polls but it will be very important to watch what hispanics do in crucial states like colorado, nevada and florida. it is no surprise that those states are being bombarded by political ads en espanol. historically, latinos tend to vote more for democrats than republicans and that won't change, presuming president barack obama will get the majority of the hispanic vote 3 to 1. but if mitt romney can get more

than a third of the latino vote, it will be a very, very close election. the most important issues for latinos are jobs, education and health care, but immigration defines who is with us and who is against us. immigration is personal. president barack obama wants to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants. mitt romney says he doesn't want an amnesty even though he talks about a permanent solution. jobs might not be as important for latinos as immigration. we'll see that on tuesday, david. >> jorge ramos, thank you. on tuesday night here, diane sawyer, george stephanopoulos and our times square election headquarters. jake tapper with the president, i'll be with mitt romney. the entire powerhouse political team out for what could be a very long night. we'll see you tuesday night here. but from forecasting the presidential race to the weather now, and to an unwelcome system tonight. for the millions who survived hurricane sandy and so many still without power, now, a new storm is brewing and bringing bitter cold. so many americans whose homes are shattered are now being exposed to plunging temperatures. so, abc meteorologist ginger zee

back at the map in new york tonight to talk us through this. ginger? >> reporter: good evening, david. hypothermia is the main concern. here is why. temperatures are dipping tonight around philadelphia at 34, atlantic city, a very hard-hit shoreline there at 30, new york city and just outside of it, right at or even some places below the freezing mark. so, it's a number that i need to show you and i can't tell you that they're going anywhere. the 30s going to stick around all the way through most of the week. so, it's not like this is lifting. and then, i've got another threat, of course i do. you've got that low pressure system that becomes that nor'easter, that kicks back rain, wind. we're talking one to three inches of rain. a very vulnerable shoreline there, going to get 6 to 12-foot there at the jersey shore and elsewhere, going to get 6 to 12-foot waves and then you add more mix of cold, poconos get a little bit of snow. david? >> couldn't come at a worst time. ginger, i know you'll be tracking this the whole way through. thank you, ginger. and we've been tracking the hunt for fuel since sandy hit. with more than a million and a half still without power and gas stations running dry, there is a

ray of hope tonight. and abc's alex perez is in new jersey this evening. alex? >> reporter: well, david, this is the sight so many people have been desperately waiting to see. take a look at that. tankers full of gas, ready to help. finally, some relief. this is one of ten fema gas distribution sites across new york and new jersey. this one is dedicated to helping first responders. but there are sites where residents can also go fill up. a ten-gallon minimum. but at locations not near these sites, you will see still many long, long lines of cars and people with containers. the feds have cleared the way for some 22 million gallons of gas to be made available to stations that have run dry. these ten fema locations have about 200,000 gallons of gas that they will be distributing, but it will still be some time, the gas situation, not expected to return to normal until about late this week. david? >> alex perez has been on this every step of the way. alex, thank you. and we want to tell our viewers at home here, our parent company disney is organizing a

day of giving on all of our programs, beginning with "good morning america" and all the way through "world news" and "nightline." we'll be reporting on how we can all help the victims of the storm. that's tomorrow, all day long, right here on abc. in the meantime, we turn now to a tragic incident at a zoo in pittsburgh. a small child falling into a pit with wild animals. the description of the attack is difficult. here's abc's mark greenblatt. >> reporter: african painted dogs like these are similar to wolves, naturally hunting in packs, which is how they attacked a 3-year-old boy today who fell into their exhibit at the pittsburgh zoo. the zoo says the boy was with his mother when he fell 14 feet over a railing and off a mesh barrier where the painted dogs were. a zookeeper snapped into action, immediately getting seven of the 11 dogs out of the exhibit and into a building, while another employee shot darts at the other four, trying to scare them away. but it all wasn't enough. >> it is with great sadness and very, very heavy hearts that we

report today that a small child was killed by our african painted dog pack. >> reporter: the pittsburgh zoo will remain closed until further notice, while the death is investigated. mark greenblatt, abc news, new york. >> horrible story out of pittsburgh tonight. there is still much more ahead on "world news" this sunday evening. who is watching over you? tonight, on the eve of the razor thin election, will there be someone watching you in that line? the force of a million, headed out. and the controversy because of it tonight. abc's dan harris, getting answers. those little things still get you. for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain,

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back now from ohio tonight, and to an abc news investigation. on the eve of this election. we learn of a powerful group, a million strong, heading out to those polling places, too. they're not getting in line to vote. they're there to watch you. and one family is sounding the alarm. here's abc's dan harris. >> reporter: teresa sharp, a grandmother in battleground ohio, says she's voted in every election since she was 18. >> voting, to me, is, like, sacred. >> reporter: so, imagine her surprise when she got this letter in the mail. >> you are hereby notified that your right to vote has been challenged by a qualified elector. >> reporter: six of her family members got similar letters. >> there's somebody out here trying to scare people into not voting. >> reporter: so, who's behind this? a grassroots organization called true the vote. >> willful fraudulent behavior. >> reporter: the founder is catherine engelbrecht. is your goal really to end voter

fraud? or is your goal really to intimidate voters who disagree with you politically? >> our goal, really, is to encourage citizens to get involved in the process. >> reporter: they are doing a community service, they say, by making sure there's no voter fraud. >> right. just the poor black neighborhoods, right? everybody else is clean. >> teresa sharp has nothing to worry about, because our citizens go into this race blind, party blind. >> reporter: you are not in any way directly targeting these communities? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: true the vote is now vowing to mobilize a million poll watchers on election day to look out for fraud like people voting multiple times. in recent years, their activists have been accused of harassment in predominantly minority districts. their founder insists true the vote the nonpartisan, although she herself runs a separate tea party group and has made very clear she would like to see president obama lose.

and here is another twist. study after study has actually found voter fraud to be virtually nonexistence. virtually nonexistent. another study in 2005 that showed that the federal government was charging more americans with violating migratory bird statutes than election fraud. >> what we've experienced suggests there's room for improvement. >> reporter: as for teresa sharp, the county threw out the challenge against her and the other day, she voted early without incident. meanwhile, true the vote now has poll watchers out at early voting places, including in minority neighborhoods, and the complaints have already begun. david? >> abc's dan harris at the desk back in new york. dan, thank you. when we come back here this evening, an extraordinary picture this weekend. stay tuned here for the real bionic man. it's called passi. and it's not letting up anytime soon. at unitedhealthcare insurance company, we understand that commitment. so does aarp, serving americans 50 and over for generations. so it's no surprise millions have chosen an aarp dicare supplement insurance plan,

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and finally tonight here, pollsters have been asking for months now, who are you going to vote for? but if you really want to know who is going to win, perhaps there's another question. here's abc's john donvan. >> reporter: you can ask voters who they want to win, but ask them who they think will win -- >> reporter: who are you going to vote for? >> romney. >> reporter: and who do you think is going to win? >> obama. >> reporter: and you might be getting a pretty decent forecast of the actual outcome on tuesday. >> you've heard about what other people are thinking, what they're feeling, and from that, you get a broad sense of how your local community is feeling. >> reporter: justin wolfers of the university of michigan just published a study on polling data, where he and a colleague looked at data from hundreds of elections dating back to the 1930s, asking what pollsters question was the best predictor of who got elected. it was not the obvious one, which candidate do you prefer,

which they say would have predicted only 69% of the elections they studied accurately. rather, it was, which candidate do you expect to win? 81% of the time, voters consensus on that turned out to be correct. and that's because, wolfers believes, voters, real people, know things. >> the amount of nchx, it's almost like you're a little pollster. >> mitt romney wins the popular vote but loses the electoral college. >> it's a tie. >> reporter: let the pundits predict. it just may be that voters know best, not only what's in their own hearts, but also those of everybody else in line. john donvan, abc news, washington. >> it is going to be close. and as they proclaim here in cleveland today, it's all about ohio. "good morning america," first thing in the morning and diane sa sawyer right back here tomorrow night. good night from ohio.

>> ama: next at 6:00, we're following breaking news after a dramatic rescue. five people pulled from the water, but two others had to be cut out of the boat. a political battle brewing. the war of words that has two east bay candidates on edge tonight. and thousands of northern california workers walk off the job. how it could affect your next grocery run. abc-7 news at 6:00 begins now. >> ama: seven people rescued today, pulled to safety, after a boat capsized in the north bay. for two victims the rescue was especially risky. i'm ama daetz. the rescue operation just wrapped up in northwestern marin county. lillian kim is live in petaluma with the story. reporter: the people who are rescued from the boat were